Darkness Within
by KittenTits
Summary: [COMPLETE] Riku loves Sora, even when on the darkside. But Cloud loves the boy too. WARNING: yaoi
1. Default Chapter

short summary : what if, before the game starts, Riku had a deep passion for Sora, a lust that made him do something really terrible? WARNING : this is yaoi!! On hundred percent male/male yaoi-y goodness. If you are offended by this, I don't recommend you read this. And if you flame me because you don't like it, I will laugh and then laugh some more.  
  
A/N: if any of you know of the authoress called neko_valentine, look at her fic in the Cardcaptor section. It's called 'A Guardians' Feelings'. I'm saying this cuz I'm her older (cooler, prettier, smarter, etc, etc,) sister and I have to be just a little bit more nice to her! *^_^* Peace out! For now...  
  
disclaimer : I do not own Kingdom Hearts in the least bit. And if you haven't played it yet, YOU SHOULD!!!!  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
  
  
Riku's light blue eyes watched the small, skinny brunette as he sat on the beach. Sora was dueling with Wakka, per-usual, trying to get better at fighting so he could finally beat Riku. Sora wore a red jumper, a black belt, and a white short sleeve jacket. He had yellow sneakers on his feet and white fingerless gloves on his hands. He was a bit short for his age, which was 13, and his mop of brown hair always seemed to get in his eyes. Despite all his efforts, he always managed to look almost like a girl.  
  
Riku on the other hand always managed to look like a guy. He was tall for a 15 year old, about a full head taller than Sora. He had platinum colored hair and wore a yellow and black sleeve-less shirt and blue pants. He had white and blue sneakers and black gloves. As he watched the smaller boy fight, Riku couldn't help but think how beautiful and graceful Sora was. It angered him that Sora didn't think twice about him, in the romantic sense anyway. Riku always had romantic fantasies about him and Sora. How could he not? The kid was about as effeminate as a guy could be without being a gay or a girl.  
  
After about fifteen minutes, Sora plomped down on the sand beside Riku. His breathing was harsh and sweat slid down his brow. He had dropped his wooden sword beside him.  
  
"Have a good work out?" Riku asked him. Sora looked at him with his big ocean blue eyes and smiled.  
  
"Yup!" he said cheerfully. "I always do!"  
  
"That's good. Because your gonna need it to beat me one day!"  
  
"Hey!!" Sora cried. "I could take you right here, right now!"  
  
Riku smirked and tittered. Sora made the most angry face he could but it only made Riku laugh.  
  
Sora then lunged and jumped on top of Riku, strattling him. "I don't see what's so funny."  
  
Riku used his greater strength to push upward and get Sora underneath him. He pinned him down effectively by the shoulders. Both of Sora's legs were caught between Riku's so Sora couldn't move very well. It kind of made him nervous.  
  
"I do," Riku purred. He looked at Sora with an emotion that Sora couldn't quite place, but made him even more nervous. Riku's face was getting awfully close to his own.  
  
"A-and what's that..?"  
  
Riku smiled. "The fact that you look so cute when your angry." His face started inching lower.  
  
There was the barest of friction as lips touched before Sora used strength he didn't even know he had and pushed Riku off him. He then backed up as far as he could till he hit the wooden wall. Riku got up and walked towards him.  
  
Sora frantically looked for a way to escape but before he could get anywhere, Riku was upon him. He grabbed Sora's wrists and pulled them behind his head. He made Sora stare him straight in the eye.  
  
"Soooora," Riku cooed, as one of his hands slid down the length of Sora's torso, stopping at his waist. Sora closed his eyes and shivered. This wasn't the Riku he knew. The Riku he knew would never do something like this. This had to be a dream, a nightmare. Just not reality.  
  
Riku noticed with some gratitude that it was getting dark. "Sora," he said. "Let's go somewhere a little more comfortable, eh?" He started to drag a struggling Sora by the wrists to the shack down the beach. 'No one will know if I do it there,' he thought to himself. 'No one will ever have to find out...'  
  
Sora continued to struggle as he was dragged down the beach. He had no idea of what Riku wanted to do with him; he was way too innocent to know the lust Riku held for him. It didn't even occur to him to scream for help.  
  
Riku pushed the door to the shack open and threw Sora in. He landed with a thump on the floorboards. He stood up and looked for an exit but Riku was standing in the middle of the only door. Slowly, Riku shut the door and locked it, putting the key into his pocket. He walked towards Sora and with each step he took, Sora took a step backwards until he bumped into the back wall.  
  
For the second time that day, Riku was upon him. Only this time Riku grabbed him by the waist, pulled him extremely close and started to kiss him.  
  
Sora whimpered, not used to the feeling of having someone else's tongue in his mouth. He put his hands on Riku's chest and tried to push him off but in the end Riku's superior strength won. Sora could feel one of Riku's hands leave his waist and move downward to rub up and down his thigh. Sora whimpered again because of this new violation, but it only seemed to fuel Riku's desire for him. He finally got his mouth off of Riku's and cried, "Riku! Please... stop..." Riku's lips claimed his again and Sora was silenced once more.  
  
After what seemed like an eternity, Riku stopped kissing him. Sora thought the worst was over but he was wrong.  
  
Riku smiled lecherously and began to take Sora's jacket off. Sora was alarmed and tried to get away but got shoved back into the wall. After his jacket came off so did his belt and his jumper.  
  
"Stop!" Sora cried again. "Riku, please..." He was completely nude when Riku took up kissing him again. It was so forceful that Sora thought that his lips would be bruised for life.  
  
Suddenly, Riku's lips moved down from his mouth and began to kiss their way down his face and neck. Sora's eyes shot open and his vision went in and out of focus from pure fear. He winced with pain when Riku bit down hard on his shoulder. That was going to leave a mark.  
  
Slowly tears started to make there way down Sora's cheeks as he allowed himself to be touched and violated. He never knew that Riku could be so cruel as to torture him like this. He'd never been touched this way before in his life and he didn't like it at all.  
  
All Sora wanted to do was curl up and die.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Riku was quite enjoying himself. He had undressed Sora completely and his hands groped anything they could as he kissed his way down Sora's cream colored throat. He could tell that he'd never been touched this way before in his life. The occasional whimper gave that away.  
  
He completely ignored Sora's pleas for him to stop; once he started he couldn't stop himself. It was like a darkness inside him that wanted to hurt Sora was making him do it. It had started on the beach when Sora first sat on top of him. He lost control of his body and this evil feeling crept into him that made him want to punish Sora for something he did. The only problems were that Riku couldn't think of anything Sora did and that he didn't want to stop; he liked doing this. Feeling Sora's perfect skin underneath his hands, tasting his moist lips, breathing in his alluring fragrance. It was all intoxicating to him.  
  
Sora had given up struggling some time ago. 'Probably enjoys it,' Riku thought. He opened his eyes a crack and saw that Sora was crying. Riku abruptly stopped and looked him straight in the face. Sora was basically sobbing; his eyes were closed and tears were making their way down his cheeks.  
  
'What have I done..?'  
  
Riku backed up, unlocked the door and ran out of the shack ashamed, leaving Sora leaning against the wall.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sora didn't know when or why Riku suddenly stopped but he didn't care. All that mattered was that he stopped.  
  
Slowly his knees bent and his back started to slide down the wall until he hit the floor. There he wrapped his arms around his legs and cried all night, long and hard into his knees.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sora had been missing all night. His parents went looking for him at about six o'clock in the morning and found him in the old shack on the far left side of the beach. He was curled up in a ball against one of the walls, completely nude and sobbing. His cloths had been discarded rather messily all over the shack. They took him home and let him get some rest. They tried desperately to get him to tell them who did it to him but he was far to embarrassed to tell them anything so he just said that he didn't know.  
  
He had stayed in his room for about a week for fear of seeing Riku again. He didn't eat or sleep, just kept sitting on his bed in a ball mumbling to himself. Eventually, he was allowed to have visitors. Kairi came to see him everyday. She just talked about stuff like the weather and how Wakka beat Tidus in a dueling match. He always loved it when she came over; it took his mind off things a little bit. Not that he talked though. He just listened.  
  
One day, when Kairi was about to leave Sora decided to tell her.  
  
"Kairi..." he said hoarsely.  
  
"Sora!" she said surprised. "You're talking again! I'll go tell your parents!!" She took off towards the door.  
  
"No!" Kairi snapped back around. "I... I have to tell you something..."  
  
She sat down on the edge of the bed. "Okay."  
  
"Well, you have to promise not to tell anyone, 'kay?" He held up his pinky finger.  
  
Kairi locked hers onto it. "I promise."  
  
Sora took a deep breath. "Riku... he... did this to me...."  
  
Kairi gasped. "R-Riku?!"  
  
"Not so loud..!"  
  
"We have to tell your parents!!"  
  
"No... You can't."  
  
Kairi shook her head. "But they should know!"  
  
"But you promised."  
  
Kairi bit her lip. She did promise but... his parents should know! 'But you promised.' Sora's voice kept playing over and over in her mind as she considered telling this to his parents or not. He looked so pitiful at that moment that she could hardly bare it. Sora lost something that he'd never get back; he lost the spark from his eyes that he always seemed to have. It was so full of life. Now it was just... dead.  
  
"Alright. I'll keep the promise." Sora smiled a bit. "But!" His smile faded. "If he does it again, or even tries it, you have to tell your parents, okay?"  
  
Sora sighed. "Alright."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sora eventually recovered. He even had the will power to see Riku by the time his birthday came around; about two weeks after the incident.  
  
But Kairi remained very angry at Riku. 'He acts as if he's never done a thing to poor Sora! The arrogant bastard...' She acted cheerful for Sora though. He needed her to be cheerful, not full of hate.  
  
And that's how she would act.  
  
  
  
~Fin of part 1~  
  
A/N : WELL?!?! What do you think!?!? Review and tell me!!!! If your wondering about all the '!!'s, it's cuz it's about 3:07am right now and I'm hyped up on chocolate!!!!^__^ Anyway, I'm taking a vote to see what male will be offering comfort to Sora in the next part : Leon or Cloud? 'Kay? So just review and tell me who you think would be better and I'll write on it!!!! PLEEEEAAASSSSEEEE do so!!!!!!!!!! 


	2. ch2 you wanted Cloud, you got Cloud!

disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, even in the slightest bit!!! The only thing I own is the plot to this half-baked story...  
  
A/N: Ok! You people like Cloud a lot! I guess that's why you voted for him. Anywho, here's the fic!! Enjoy!  
  
A/N2: sorry it took so long to post this. It's cuz I still live with my parents and they only let me on the net at certain times.  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
  
  
Blackness. An endless swirling combination of different shades of black that were trying to consume him whole.  
  
That was all Sora was able to see. He could see nothing but endless black, he could feel nothing upon his small body. That's why it nearly scared him out of his wits when two slender arms encircled his waist from behind. He recognized the touch from somewhere but just couldn't remember where.  
  
Sora felt a face nuzzle into the crevasse between his shoulder blades. The soft hair felt good against his back and he almost melted into the person's soft touch. Almost.  
  
"How ya doing, Sora?" whispered the voice behind him.  
  
Sora froze. That voice sounded like Riku's. But it couldn't be him... could it? Riku was lost when the Darkside attacked Destiny Island. Wasn't he?  
  
"No," came Riku's voice. "I wasn't lost. And it really is me." He planted a small kiss on the base of Sora's neck.  
  
This had the desired effect of having Sora shoot forward and out of Riku's grip. 'Sora has no idea how alluring he is when he struggles,' Riku thought as he looked at the small, fearful boy in front of him.  
  
"How did you know that was what I was thinking?" This wasn't good. If he had to fight Riku, he would have to do it without the Keyblade and with Riku knowing what he was thinking.  
  
Riku smirked. "This is a dream world that I made especially for you," he said. His smirk grew bigger. "So you can't go to sleep unless you give up on this childish game your playing."  
  
Sora looked puzzled. "What game?"  
  
A dark chuckling could be heard coming from Riku. "The game in which you run away from me, as if you're scared of what will happen to you."  
  
"That's cuz I am scared!!" Sora exclaimed. "I'm terrified of you! Ever since that time back home."  
  
"Oh?" Riku said, arching an eyebrow. "And here was me thinking you enjoyed that."  
  
Sora shook with rage. 'Enjoyed it!?' he thought. 'I've never been the same since!' Suddenly, he shot towards Riku and tried to punch him. As if he expected the attack, Riku grabbed the brunette's wrists and restrained him by putting Sora's back against his chest and holding his arms to his sides.  
  
"You can never best me at anything," Riku whispered into Sora's ear. "Not even in your own dream." He started kissing the back of the boy's neck.  
  
Sora started struggling as much as he could. He wouldn't let Riku take advantage of his weaknesses. Not again. But despite all his attempts, he couldn't break free of the older boy's hold on him. As fast as Sora'd gotten himself into this, Riku moved one of his arms across both Sora's arms and his middle and moved the other one downward to his waist. He didn't stop there though; his hand kept going around to the front.  
  
Sora's breathing stopped. 'He's not gonna to do what I think, is he?' He almost died of fear when Riku's hand started rubbing his most sensitive spot. "Stop, Riku! Please..!" he begged. "Please, don't...!"  
  
"Relax," Riku said seductively. "You'll enjoy it a lot more..."  
  
Sora whimpered. 'Come on,' he thought to himself. 'Wake up!!'  
  
All of a sudden, Riku disappeared and everything spun.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Sora's eyes shot open. He was lying on his side back at the camp him, Goofy, Cloud and Donald made outside of the Coliseum. It was still dark so he couldn't have been asleep that long. He tried to get up but found that he couldn't. A little worried, he looked down at his waist and saw that it was due to a pair of arms wrapped around him. One hand had gold plates on top of a fingerless glove on each finger and the other was just a match to the other glove. Sora relaxed automatically; it was just Cloud.  
  
'Wait a minute,' he thought. 'Since when did Cloud cuddle up to people?'  
  
Sora turned around in Cloud's embrace and found himself staring the mysterious man straight in the eye. A blush grazed Cloud's face.  
  
"You were having a nightmare," Cloud explained. "I tried to wake you but you wouldn't. I thought you wouldn't mind if I tried to comfort you..."  
  
Sora noticed with slight curiosity that Cloud still had his arms around his waist. Cloud, noticing Sora's eyes go to his arms, immediately released his grip and pushed himself up. Now that both were sitting up and wide awake, Cloud decided to ask.  
  
"Sora..."  
  
Sora looked up at Cloud from his slightly lower sitting height. "Hmm?"  
  
He took a deep breath. "What... were you dreaming about that made you so upset?"  
  
Sora looked down, almost as if he was ashamed, and sighed. 'Maybe I should tell him...'  
  
"Sora?"  
  
The small brunette looked up at Cloud. "Do you mind if it's kind of a long story?"  
  
The blond shook his head.  
  
So Sora told him the whole story, even though most of it took a little persuasion on Cloud's part. He ended by telling Cloud about the dream. The blonde noticed that Sora kept his head down the whole time while he was telling the story.  
  
Cloud was devastated. How could someone do something like that to someone so young and... just plain innocent? How cruel did someone have to be?  
  
"But it was my fault." Sora's voice turned his attention back to the boy, whom was still looking down. "I shouldn't have let him take advantage of me; I should have fought back... but I didn't... so I guess I kind of desevered it....." Sora trailed off and started sobbing. "I'm just a stupid little kid who deserves what he got..."  
  
Cloud put his hand on Sora's shoulder. "Sora, no one deserves that; no one. Never ever think that you deserve something like that. That Riku person should never even have thought of doing something like that at his age." Out of the blue, Sora latched onto him and buried his face in the older one's chest. Cloud sat there shocked for a moment before he put his arms around the slight shoulders. He felt something inside him; something that wanted to protect this small boy in his arms, this beautiful child. He turned Sora around and pulled him into his lap. He noticed Sora stopped crying.  
  
Timidly, Cloud slid his arms around the small waist and hugged the boy to him. Sora stiffened for a minute but then melted into the other's gentle touch. Sora's head seemed to fit perfectly into the crevasse beneath his head. Cloud nuzzled the soft brown hair with his face and deeply breathed in Sora's scent. He started to love it...  
  
'Wait a second!' Cloud thought. 'I don't love Sora... do I? I-I couldn't... I'm so much older than he is!'  
  
Slight snoring pulled his attention back to Sora. He seemed to have fallen asleep while Cloud was thinking.  
  
He smiled. Maybe Sora would accept it, even after all the boy had been through.  
  
All he could do was hope.  
  
~Fin~  
  
A/N : well?! tell me whatcha think! did you like it? tell, please? oh! if people want me to write about the others too, e-mail me and tell me. it might take a little while for em to get posted, but I'll do it if you guys want me to! *^_^* AND!! if you's like me to continue with this one, SEND ME IDEAS!!! ^o^ 


	3. ch3 Leaving

disclaimer : I do not own Kingdom Hearts. So please don't ask me for copyrights to it... ;__;  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
  
  
When Sora awoke the next morning, Cloud had his arms wrapped protectively around him as he sat in the older man's lap. He heard light snoring so Cloud must have still been asleep.  
  
Sora snuggled his back into Cloud's chest and sighed contently. 'If only this could last forever...' he thought to himself. For a second he wondered if he should be thinking such thoughts of someone like Cloud; Cloud was the type of person who'd beat the shit out of you if you looked at him the wrong way. But he soon dismissed the thought as something he'd figure out later, and went back to sleep.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Cloud woke up a short time later. He found Sora still sitting in his lap, sleeping peacefully. He snuggled his face into the boy's neck and kissed it softly. He still wasn't sure if he should be feeling this way about a fourteen year old, but the heart always wins, doesn't it?  
  
Slowly, he got up and laid Sora down next to Goofy and Donald. Cloud had to catch up with Aerith, Yuffie and Leon and if he didn't soon, they'd think something happened to him.  
  
He bent his head and kissed Sora lightly on the forehead and walked silently away.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
When Sora woke up again later, he didn't feel Cloud's arms wrapped securely around his waist. He opened his eyes and saw that Cloud was nowhere to be seen. He sighed. 'Figures....' he thought. 'Just like Cloud...'  
  
  
  
~fin of ch.3~  
  
A/N : HOLY SHIT!!! Was that a short chapter or what?!? I soooo ran out of ideas! *___* Anywho, I've got ideas for later chapters. That's good!  
  
NeKo: hahahahaha!!!! She really doesn't have that many ideas! I give her the ideas!! I may be younger, but I'm smarter!!!!! :P  
  
RIN : *sarcastically* yeah, and I don't set fire to things! 


	4. ch4 so we meet again

disclaimer : Yo yo!! I DO own Kingdom Hearts!!! In my own little world in my head....  
  
A/N : I'm gonna change the storyline a LITTLE bit, not much, but a little bit!! ^_~  
  
A/N2 : I got my first flame!! I'm so proud! But the person (who flamed) is an idiot cuz I've said it once, and I'll say it again, IF YOU DON'T LIKE EVIL ANGSTY YAOI, THEN DON'T READ THIS FIC!!!! Now, if the person flames me again for calling them an idiot, well, we'll talk.  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
Sometime later, Sora, Donald and Goofy had found their way back to Traverse Town. They had gone through a few worlds, like Wonderland and Tarzan's Jungle, so they thought they'd head back there to see what was going on*.  
  
They arrived at the front gate and wandered into the item shop. They had a chat with Huey, Dewy and Louie, bought a few items and left.  
  
The trio wandered into the Third and Second Districts before going into the house where Leon introduced them to Yuffie and Aerith. 'Hey,' Sora thought. 'doesn't Cloud work with them?' He pondered on this for a moment before his thoughts trailed to the handsome blond swordsman himself. Cloud had been so kind to him, so friendly, so-  
  
*You can't hide behind him forever, Sora,* a voice said in his mind. Sora jumped as the voice went on. *Soon, he will leave you. And the only person you will be able to turn to is me, the FIRST one to love you...*  
  
"Where are you!?" Sora asked out loud, looking around. Donald and Goofy looked puzzled.  
  
"We're right here, Sora," Goofy said with a chuckle.  
  
Donald tilted his staff towards the boy. "I think you're loosing it."  
  
"You mean you didn't hear the voice just now?" Sora asked, confused. The two shook their heads. "Oh well, must be hearing things," he lied. For in his heart, he knew exactly who spoke to him; how could he forget?  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Cloud watched the boy who stole his heart from a rooftop. The wind blew his blond spikes backwards, off his face. Sora, Donald and Goofy had walked into the Leon's so called "hideout". It couldn't even be called a hideout really. It was basically a one room house.  
  
"Clooouuuud!" A voice behind him. 'Sounds like Yuffie.'  
  
He turned around and faced the petite ninja. 'Yup, Yuffie.'  
  
"What?" he asked.  
  
Yuffie gave him an evil smirk. "Don't think I don't know what you were doing! Cuz I know exactly what you were doing."  
  
Cloud raised a blond eyebrow. "And what was that?"  
  
Her face went into an even eviler smirk; if that was possible. "You were watching Sora, weren't you?"  
  
"W-what..?" he said, blushing.  
  
Yuffie fell to the floor in laughter. "Hahahahahahah!!!!!!!" she laughed. "You were, weren't you??!?! I can't believe it!!!!"  
  
"Yuffie, please don't make fun of Cloud," a voice from the shadows said. A girl in a long pink, strapless dress emerged from the shadows' embrace. Her hair reached down just past her waist in a ponytail that turned into a braid. Aerith**.  
  
"And why not? It's so much FUN!!!" The small ninja giggled some more.  
  
Aerith shook her head. "Because. I don't think Cloud needs that at the moment. He is trying to decide whether or not to go to him." She turned to look at Cloud. "Are you not?"  
  
"Yes..." came the faint reply. "I am deciding..."  
  
Yuffie put her hand on his shoulder. "What are you waiting for? Go after him!!"  
  
Cloud shook his head. "But, he's so young..."  
  
"Who cares? If you love him then go after him before someone else gets to him first!! And if that age stuff comes up in your head again, all you have to remember is that love is more important that age difference or any of that other crap."  
  
Giggling could be heard coming from Aerith. "What?" Yuffie asked, annoyed.  
  
"It's just that what you said made a bit of sense," she giggled.  
  
Yuffie laughed a bit at this. "I did, didn't I?" She stepped away from the blond man and went towards Aerith. They laughed together.  
  
Suddenly, Cloud jumped off of the roof, bounced off of a barrel and landed on his feet on the ground.  
  
"I wish he'd stop doing that and use the stairs like a normal person..." Yuffie sighed as she and her best friend ran down the stairs after him.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Sora heard a faint thump from outside. He looked out the window but saw nothing and that made him a bit worried. Goofy and Donald were right behind him at the window and ready to attack if necessary. They must have heard it too.  
  
The doorknob jiggled a bit and both the two went to either side of the doorway. They were ready to whack whatever came through the door.  
  
Finally, the door opened and inside walked a blond haired man. On a reflex, Donald and Goofy brought their weapons down on his head and he fell to the floor.  
  
"Cloud!" Sora cried. The boy went to the older man's side and shook him slightly. "Come on, wake up!"  
  
He stirred and slowly sat up. "Whoever the hell hit me had better not still be here," he said threateningly.  
  
Donald and Goofy ran out of the house as fast as they could.  
  
~fin of ch.4~  
  
*=that's the reason I went back to Travese Town!  
  
**= I spelled it 'Aeris' every single time this chapter until I edited! I've played WAY too much FF7 and not enough KH... :P  
  
A/N : how is it? TEEEEEELLLLLL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! R+R and I will love you forever!!! *^_^* 


	5. ch5 running

disclaimer : Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me.  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
"You okay?" Sora asked as Cloud slowly stood up. Cloud stared down at him from his greater height and looked him over. The youth hadn't changed much; except a few muscles that hadn't been there before and that he looked like he'd been ruffed up a bit.  
  
"I'm fine," Cloud replied, a bit sheepishly. "It's just I don't get hit in the head by too many people with weapons."  
  
Sora laughed and rested his fists on his slightly full hips. 'He shouldn't even have hips like that,' Cloud thought. 'Wait a minute! Why am I thinking about his hips? Not like they're all perfect or anything... What am I saying?! Everything about him's perfect!' Giving up, he sighed.  
  
"Whassa matter?" Sora asked him.  
  
The blond man shook his head. "Nothing... listen-"  
  
"CLOUD!!!" came the loud voice he had grown used over the years in which he had worked with her. "Where have you been?!?!" Yuffie exclaimed. "We've been looking all over for ya!!"  
  
"I've been right here," Cloud stated solemnly.  
  
"Yes, he has been right here, Yuffie," the gentle voice of Aerith said. "But you kept going around in circles saying that, 'He's gotta be around here somewhere!!'." Yuffie and Sora laughed at her imitation of the ninja.  
  
"That's pretty good, Aerith," Sora said. "You could get your own TV show or something!"  
  
The woman in pink giggled and blushed while Yuffie snorted.  
  
"Hey," Aerith said suddenly. "Why don't we all get something to eat? Sora, you look famished!"  
  
As if it heard the statement, Sora's stomach growled with hunger. "Heh heh... My stomach agrees with you."  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
At dinner, the four talked about almost everything; the weather, Heartless, stuff like that. Yuffie even made a comment about Sora's big feet. He protested and said that it was just the shoes.  
  
After dinner, Aerith and Yuffie said that they had to go 'shopping' leaving Cloud and Sora all alone. They decided to go for a walk around town.  
  
"So," Sora asked as they stridded into the Third District. "How's life?"  
  
"...alright, I suppose," Cloud replied.  
  
"That's...nice... How've you been lately?"  
  
"...good..."  
  
"That's good... See any Heartless around here?"  
  
"..a few..."  
  
Sora clenched his hands. 'Is he gonna give me one or two word answers all night?!' he thought. "Are you always this talkative!?"  
  
"...no..."  
  
"Ughghgh!!! I'm sick of this!!! Don't just give me one or two word answers all night!?! Back at the Coliseum you were talking like there was no tomorrow!!!!"  
  
"......" Cloud just stared at him.  
  
Tears welled up at the corner of the boy's eyes before he took off running. 'I thought he cared about me!!! But he's...just like Riku....'  
  
"Sora!" Cloud called to the youth before he too took off running.  
  
~fin of ch.5~  
  
A/N : *singing* tell me what you thiiink!! Abooooouuuut the story! *stops singing* In other words, R+R=review!! Do so please! And if you're wondering about why the hell Sora ran off so easily for, then it's cuz I needed a reason for him to run away from Cloud and that was the first thing that came to mind. 


	6. ch6 taken

disclaimer : Kingdom Hearts is no mine. ;__;  
  
  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
  
  
Cloud continued to chase after Sora all through the Second and Third Districts. Finally, in the Third District Sora showed signs of slowing down. He lost his breath and stopped, hands on his knees. Cloud walked up behind him, breathing normal, not out of breath in the least bit.  
  
"Sora," Cloud said. "You shouldn't run off like that around here. You could be attacked by Heartless."  
  
The brunette stood up and glared at him. Cloud flinched; Sora's deep blue eyes were full anguish and despair.  
  
"I can take care of myself, you know," Sora stated bluntly.  
  
The blond nodded. "I am quite aware of the fact. It's just that lately, Heartless have been attacking in groups of about ten or more."  
  
"So?!" the small boy said angrily. "I'm the Keyblade master!! It's not like I haven't beaten ten or more Heartless before!!!"  
  
"I know. I am just worried about you, that's al-"  
  
"NO!!!" Sora shouted. "You're not worried about me!! You were never worried about me!!!!" He shook his head vigorously and then calmed down. "I'd say Riku cared more about me..."  
  
Suddenly, laughter erupted behind them. Sora's eyes went wide and he paled.  
  
"No..." the boy muttered. "No... not now....."  
  
Confused, Cloud looked behind and saw a youth standing about twenty feet away. He had longish platinum hair and he wore an outfit that bore the Heartless symbol. On his face he wore a smirk that held evil intentions behind it.  
  
"Hello, Sora," the youth said mockingly, smirk ever present on his face. "How have you been?"  
  
Sora whimpered and took a step backwards.  
  
The platinum haired youth snorted. "Don't tell me you're afraid of ol' Riku?"  
  
"You're Riku?!" Cloud asked, aghast. This boy was the one who did... to Sora?! He was a bit younger than the blond had thought; he looked no older than fifteen but was a bit tall to say the least. He eyed Sora like the small boy was a piece of meat to a hungry wolf. His eyes were full of what looked to be lust. Cloud only hoped that it wasn't.  
  
Riku's attention suddenly turned to him. "What of it?"  
  
Cloud stood there wide eyed for a second. "You're the one who did... that... to Sora, aren't you!?!"  
  
Riku stared at him boredly. "Oh, so the little wretch told on me, did he?" He looked over to the brunette, who shrank back in fear. "Bad boy, you'll have to be punished for that later, now won't you?"  
  
Cloud stood protectively in front of Sora, almost hiding the boy from Riku's view. "Don't think so."  
  
A platinum eyebrow went up. "And you think that you can stop me? Like to see you try!" His eyes glowed an evil red and about fifteen Heartless appeared. They all attacked the two of them at once. Riku jumped into the air and levitated ten or so feet from the ground, watching the fight ensue.  
  
A smaller one lunged at Cloud's face but Cloud used his sword and it bounced off. The next one attacked him about the knees and hit dead on. The blond staggered and fell onto one knee. 'Got to... protect Sora,' Cloud thought. 'He's too much of an emotional breakdown at the moment.' He blocked the next attack to his chest.  
  
Sora summoned the Keyblade and started half heartedly hacking away at Heartless that happen to come his way. A big round one (sorry, I forgot what they're called! ^_^) kept pushing him backwards until he hit a wall. Sora attempted to hit it but the attacks bounced off. The Heartless kept on banging into him and causing him to keep hitting the wall. The small boy closed his eyes and waited for the Heartless to finish him off....  
  
And then it stopped; the hitting, the banging into walls, it all stopped. He opened his eyes to see Cloud madly slashing away at Heartless. Sora stepped away from the wall and then took a few more steps. He looked around; he couldn't see Riku anywhere. This both relieved him and concerned him.  
  
Two arms suddenly encircled Sora's waist from behind; the boy froze and dropped the Keyblade. The two arms pulled him upward until his feet dangled.  
  
The person holding him from behind landed on top of a wall. Sora's feet were still dangling over the edge but the person had a firm grip on his waist.  
  
Warm breathe was on his ear about a moment after landing on the wall. Soft lips kissed the side of Sora's face and worked their way down his neck. "Too long I have denied myself this," came Riku's whispery voice. He continued kissing down the teenager's neck and Sora whimpered.  
  
"No..." was Sora's weak protest. "No, please..! Not again..."  
  
One of Riku's arms left Sora's waist and began to stroke gently up and down along the brunette's arm. "Cloud!!" Sora cried out. "Cloud, please help..!"  
  
The blonde looked up to where his name had been called from and the sight sickened him to no end; that filthy bastard Riku once again taking advantage of Sora. Enraged, Cloud tried to get to him but more Heartless appeared and prevented him from getting through.  
  
"We should make our leave," Riku whispered into Sora's neck. The small boy fearfully struggled to get out of the hold and kicked Riku in the knee in doing so. "You shouldn't have done that," the platinum haired youth said to Sora. A swift punch to the stomach sent the boy into unconsciousness. Riku slung Sora over his shoulder and proceeded to disappear. The Heartless soon followed.  
  
Cloud flung himself to the ground in utter sorrow as he cried out and mentally beat himself up. 'How could I have let that happen?!?' he asked himself harshly. 'How!?!?! Why!!? How could I have let the only one I love get taken by the one thing he fears?!?!'  
  
  
  
~fin of ch.6~  
  
A/N : How's that for weird?!?!?? I mean come ON!!! It took me a whole four days to write this, and I want reviews!!!! Give me more!! I need MORE!!!! Mwa hahahahaah!!!!! *cough* Sorry... *___*; 


	7. ch7 rescue plans

disclaimer : I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the lyrics to 'In The End' and 'Points of Authority'. There, it's done!! ;__; Now don't pick on me cuz don't own it...  
  
A/N : I think I might start putting bits of songs in the beginning of the chapters from now on, if they fit what I want for the chappy. What do ya think? Should I? Should I not? Tell me in a review or an e-mail! Or summit....  
  
  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
i kept everything inside and even though i tried it all fell apart what it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time i tried so hard ~~~in the end - LINKIN PARK  
  
  
  
Cloud, who was still mentally beating himself up, walked over to where the Keyblade lay. Slowly he bent down and picked it up. It felt odd in his hand; he guessed it was because he wasn't master of it.  
  
"Sora must have dropped this..." he said quietly. "Sora....." He looked up towards the stars, determination clear in his mako**-green eyes. "Sora... I will find you. Wherever in any of the worlds you are, I'll find you. Just hang on."*  
  
Quickly he ran to find Aerith and Yuffie, and maybe Leon too, to help him in his search.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
You love the way I look at you While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through You take away if I give in My life, my pride is broken ~~~points of authority - LINKIN PARK  
  
  
  
Riku continued to carry Sora over his shoulder through the black abyss in which the platinum haired youth resided. This was his "room" if you will.  
  
Out of nowhere, a bed appeared; it was covered in black sheets and pillow covers. It was square shaped, like a normal bed, but had what appeared to be talons for legs. It's owners' dream bed.  
  
He removed the small brunette from his shoulder and placed him on the bed. He looked so serene in his unconscious sleep that Riku couldn't help but stroke his face with his gloved hand. Even through the material of the glove he could tell how soft Sora's skin was. And he knew that softness off by heart.  
  
Sora suddenly stirred causing Riku to pull his hand back. The platinum haired one smirked when Sora opened his big ocean blue eyes and stared at him in fear. The boy backed up until he hit the headboard of the bed.  
  
"Soooorraaaa," Riku cooed to his captive. The said captive kept trying to back up into the headboard. Riku crawled onto the end of the bed and slowly started crawling up towards the head.  
  
The boy's eyes widened. "S-stay away f-from me," he stuttered meekly.  
  
Riku reached Sora. "You don't mean that," he purred. The brunette responded by trying to get past the older boy but Riku simply grabbed him by the arm and turned him around. The result; Sora was sent to Riku's arms, which immediately wrapped tightly around him. Sora squirmed and wriggled as best he could but he couldn't best Riku's strength.  
  
As fast as he had the last time, Riku started kissed him roughly on the lips. His tongue forced entry into Sora's mouth and he pushed the boy backwards onto the bed, pinning him effectively with his greater weight. Though he tried, Sora couldn't shove Riku off him, even when the youth started to take his cloths off. Feeling completely helpless, Sora started crying. But the tears did nothing to stop Riku; he just kept taking the boy's cloths off agonizingly slow.  
  
Completely nude, like the last time, with Riku strattling him was starting to make Sora feel worse and worse. So much that he just gave up struggling all together when Riku kissed his way down his neck, hands groping anything they could.  
  
"Cloud..." the brunette mumbled weakly. "Help me, please... I'm sorry............"  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
"Yuffie, how do think it's going with Cloud?" Aerith asked the younger girl.  
  
She shrugged. "Uh huh. You never now with Cloud." She looked behind her to someone standing in the shadows. "What do you think Leon?"  
  
The shadow seemed to shake it's head. "It's not my place to say."  
  
The girl stuck her tongue out at the stoic man and turned back to Aerith. "Well, I think that Cloud's told Sora and they're happily making out in an ally somewhere! That's what's probably happening as we speak!!"  
  
Leon twitched.  
  
Just as Yuffie was about to say that, "It is!!!", Cloud burst through the door of the small house, panting and carrying Sora's Keyblade in one gloved hand. He had a worried look on his face which he didn't wear very often.  
  
"What is it, Cloud?" Aerith asked. "What's happened?"  
  
"So-Sora," he panted. "He's been kidnapped."  
  
All three sets of eyes widened and stared at him. "What?!!" Yuffie asked, extremely confused.  
  
"You heard me," Cloud replied. "He was kidnapped by his old "friend", who now works for the Heartless. That's about all I know. But we have to get him back before something bad happens to him."  
  
Leon eyed the blonde suspiciously. Cloud knew something he wasn't telling the rest of them. "What makes you think that they'll do something bad to the boy?"  
  
He shrugged. "They are Heartless."  
  
Leon replied by snorting and pushing off of the wall, stepping out of the shadows. "Are we going to rescue him or not?"  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
  
  
~Fin of ch. 7~  
  
*= was that a corny line or what??!? I've seen it in too many movies; I just couldn't resist putting it in there!  
  
**= if you don't know about mako, PLAY FF7!!!!!! But, if you don't wanna spend all that valuable money, here's a brief explanation: mako is energy from the Planet which the people of Midgar and the entire Planet use everyday for different things. The mako is sucked out of the Planet by giant reactors in Midgar, which is slowly killing the Planet. ShinRa, a mega company in Midgar, infuses soldiers with mako to make them stronger. This also gives the soldiers' eyes a green tint. Too much exposer to mako will result in mako-poisoning (a rare case in which a large amount of mako in shoved into the brain at once) and leave you like one of those people who can't talk or move very well and have to have constant care from other people. There ya go!!! The best explanation I can give. You no likey, you can shove it up where the sun don't shine!!!  
  
A/N : what do you think? Tell ME!!!!!! ^____^ Anywho, should I keep putting bits of songs at the beginning of the chappy's or what? R+R and tell me! 


	8. ch8 dreaming

disclaimer : Kingdom Hearts belong to me not.... ;____; The lyrics to "push" as well  
  
A/N : I kinda changed the words to the song bit below to make it fit... So please, don't mind!!  
  
A/N2 : I've decided to only put in song lyrics if I absolutely HAVE to. What I mean is that if I listen to a song on the radio or my CD player and I think it goes with the plot thingy for the current chapter I'm writing, and I just HAVE to put it in there cuz it's sooooo cool, then I will.  
  
A/N3(a lot of authur's notes...) : I've been delayed access to the computer as of late cuz I've been sick. My mother wouldn't let me on the computer cuz she doesn't want her precious NEKO to get sick too!!!! Damn mother, always lovin' the youngest...  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
and I don't know if you've ever been really loved by a hand that's touched you and you feel like somethings gonna give and you're a little bit angry -- Matchbox 20 - "push"  
*Riku,* the slick, low voice of Maleficent echoed in his mind. *Come. You are needed.*  
  
Riku rolled his eyes and got up off the bed, admiring his handy work; Sora was lying on his stomach, head to the side, eyes wide and motionless. He blinked every so often, but that didn't count. He could tell that Sora had never had that kind of thing done to him before; he had still been untouched, untainted, a virgin. 'I'm surprised the blonde didn't try to fuck him where he stood though.'  
  
Slowly the platinum haired youth put his cloths back on and walked out of the "room". 'It is more like a void with a door, for gods sake,' he thought. 'Oh, who cares, Sora cannot escape.' He looked back briefly to the boy on the bed. 'Not like he could try at the moment, though.'  
  
He smirked at the thought and proceeded to the main chamber of the stronghold, where Maleficent resided. He entered and the many Heartless, big and small, parted to let him through. He walked to the front of the chamber and the witch looked up.  
  
"Riku," she said, smiling evilly. She knew of his doings with the younger boy; she thought they were delightful. "I see you have been entertaining yourself."  
  
He smirked. "Very much so."  
  
Maleficent indicated to a crystal ball in front of her with her staff. "But I think he will cause problems. Take a look."  
  
The youth peered into the clear crystal of the orb and what he saw disgusted him. That stupid blonde man was leading a small group of people towards a ship of some sorts, grasping the Keyblade in one hand. Riku spat on the floor next to the floating orb in anger. 'That ignorant man will not take Sora away from me again,' he thought bitterly. 'He will have to come here and pry him from my cold dead fingers!'  
  
Now in a bad mood, he stalked back to the abyss which he left the boy in.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Yuffie and Aerith had found Donald and Goofy and told them about what happened. Cloud and Leon gathered supplies from Cid, and the duck brothers. Afterwards, the six walked into the Gummi Ship and prepared to leave.  
  
"Chip, Dale, are we ready to go?" Cloud asked the two chipmunk pilots. They both nodded their heads and gave him the thumbs up. "Alright then, let's go!"  
  
Cloud hung on to a handle above his head as the ship shot out into space. He barely had the strength in his hand to hold on for the impact of slowing down. He heard a crash behind him and looked back to see that Yuffie had gone flying into Leon and was now lying on top of him. Leon didn't look very happy about it.  
  
The ninja smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Leon," she said as she got off of him.  
  
"It's fine..." he mumbled.  
  
!~!~!  
  
It took a while, but soon everyone had found a comfortable place on the floor. Aerith had somehow managed to get to sleep, propped up against a wall. Cloud didn't know how, but she did.  
  
Yuffie persisted in bugging the hell out of Leon, but he just sat there with his eyes closed, trying to concentrate.  
  
Cloud did the same thing, although for probably different reasons than the stoic brunette; he thought of what was happening to Sora, if the Heartless, or Riku, had hurt him at all. He'd kill them if they had, even if it took an age, he would. Unconsciously, he clenched his hands.  
  
"Cloud," came Aerith's gentle voice. "What are you thinking about? You look angry."  
  
His eyes opened in a narrow slit. "I thought you were asleep."  
  
"I woke up. Now, why are you angry?"  
  
Cloud sighed and unclenched his hands. This could take a few minutes...  
  
!~!~!  
  
"Come on, Leon!" the ninja said annoyingly. "Talk to me!!!" She pointed a finger at him. "I know you want to!"  
  
Leon opened his eyes a crack to look at her. "Who says I want to?" he muttered calmly.  
  
Yuffie huffed out her chest at him in frustration and turned away from him muttering different things Leon couldn't pick out. The silent man rolled his eyes at her and shut them once more to try and concentrate.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Sora had managed to find the energy to get up from his lying position and curl up into a ball at the head of the bed. There he started crying; NEVER before had he been touched or violated in such a way. It was even worse then when Riku attacked him before. What had happened was that, after Riku had taken his cloths off and finished kissing his neck, he had taken his own cloths off as well. The platinum haired youth then proceeded to turn him onto his stomach, gripped his hips with two hands, and roughly forced himself inside of the younger boy. Sora had cried out in pain but Riku silenced him by applying bruising pressure to his waist. He kept repeating that over and over again. It was made even worse by the fact that Riku told him the entire time that no one came for him.  
  
Then, suddenly it all stopped and Riku had left.  
  
But it took a brutal toll on the boy's mind; he thought of himself as worthless and utterly useless. He was helpless to stop what was happening to him, so he didn't even try. 'What's the point?' he asked himself. 'Riku'll just win in the end anyway...'  
  
The brunette just sat there for a long time, arms wrapped around his knees. He didn't know how long he had been sitting there when he heard the sound of a door open and slam close. He looked up and saw Riku walking towards him, a scowl present on his face. Upon reaching the bed, he grabbed Sora by the arm and pulled him into an embrace. He forcefully kissed the younger boy, gripping his arms in a bruising hold. Sora whimpered but Riku only gripped harder.  
  
Slowly Riku lowered Sora onto the bed and for the second time that day, Sora was broken.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
~fin of ch.8~  
  
A/N : OK, I know what you're thinking; WTF is she doing!?!! I'm being really mean to Sora cuz it'll lead up to something at the end, trust me. As always, R+R! ^__~ Thankies!! 


	9. ch9 dreaming of hope

disclaimer : I own not Kingdom Hearts but I do own "Dreaming of Hope" by me! I made the poem up myself! @__@ Amazing, isn't it?  
  
A/N : thingy for dreams is the da da da things, 'kay? -__-  
  
A/N2 : I'd like to thank all the people who reviewed on this fic so far! I wuv you all!! YOU are the reason I'm still writing this!!!  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
She looked around but all she saw was darkness. She couldn't see anything else and it was scaring her a little bit.  
  
The dark even made her long pink dress look darker than it really was; it had gone now to something that only resembled pink. She continued to look around, her long brown hair swinging back a forth across her back in the process. Aerith took a few steps forward and stopped.  
  
A boy had appeared in front of her; he had short, spiky brown hair and haunting blue eyes. His cloths were ripped and he was covered in bruises along his arms and legs. She could only imagine what bruises hid underneath the clothing. Her eyes widened as she realized who it was.  
  
"Sora!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Where are you? I mean- where have you been, cause I mean you're here --- or are you?"  
  
The brunette only continued to stare at her so she approached him.  
  
"Sora, please, talk to me," she begged. "We need to know where you are."  
  
"...why?" Sora asked quietly. "...you aren't coming for me."  
  
Aerith gawked. "Who told you that? We're trying our best to find you! We just don't have a clue as to where you are."  
  
"...really..? I was told differently..." A platinum haired youth suddenly appeared behind him and wrapped his arms around Sora's slight shoulders. He nuzzled the top of the boy's head in a loving fashion.  
  
"Who is...?" Aerith began to ask.  
  
"I am Riku," the youth answered. "And you are Aerith Gainsborough, correct?"  
  
She stood there aghast. He knew her name?! What else did he know? Did he give Sora those bruises?  
  
"What do you want with Sora?" she asked, concerned as to the boy's well being. "And where do you have him held?"  
  
Riku laughed, a cackle that sent chills throughout her whole body. "Do you really want to know that bad?" He smirked. "Alright, I suppose I'll tell you where I have him..." He waved his hand and a giant star system appeared. Aerith gazed at it in wonderment and fascination. Again he smirked and pointed to a place at the far right side. "Follow the trail of stars right to this place, Hollow Bastion. I wish you luck in finding this place." He picked Sora up into his arms and began to walk away. "You'll need it."  
  
She watched the two walk slowly out of sight and sighed. Why would he tell her where he was? It was all a bit odd...  
  
As suddenly as she had got there, she felt she was leaving.  
  
And all she saw was white light.  
  
!~!~!  
  
Aerith's eyes snapped open and she saw the ceiling of the Gummi Ship. She sat up and looked around to see Yuffie and Leon sitting in the corner, Yuffie asleep, as she had been, and Leon just looking like Leon. Cloud was leaning against the far left wall, looking towards her curiously.  
  
"Did you have a nightmare, Aerith?" he asked flatly.  
  
"..no..." she said thoughtfully. "I think I know where Sora is!" She got up off the floor and ran to the control room. Cloud followed.  
  
"What?!" he asked. "How?!"  
  
"I had a dream," she said. "Sora and another boy were there. Sora looked really beat up and the other boy had an odd outfit on. It had the Heartless symbol on the front and he had kind of long, silver hair." She paused as she tried to remember the rest. "He showed me a giant star map. He pointed to a place in it and said that's where he was."  
  
"Where did he point?!"  
  
Aerith looked at the small star map in between the two chipmunks, trying hard to remember where Riku had shown her. She pointed to a place on the far right side of it. "Here. I'm pretty certain."  
  
Cloud looked at her hopefully. "Really?"  
  
She nodded.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Riku sighed in contentment as he lay on his back, Sora curled up at his side, dark haired head resting upon his chest. He didn't even notice the small pool of tears also resting there. Nor would he have cared; the boy was finally giving in and falling into submission. It seemed so anyway because Sora didn't struggle half as much as he had at the beginning.  
  
Or it could have been that Riku had finally convinced him that no one was coming for him.  
  
'Ah, yes,' Riku thought gleefully. 'That's probably it...'  
  
He reached down and pulled one of Sora's arms around his waist. Then he slowly stroked the boy's soft brown hair with one of his pale hands.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
"How long is it gonna take to get there?" Cloud asked one of the chipmunks.  
  
Dale shrugged. "About an hour. Could be two."  
  
The blonde sighed; Sora'd be dead by the time that they got there to save him... 'No! Shut up, Cloud!' he thought to himself. 'He's not dead! He's not dead..! And he's not gonna die!' He sighed again and headed back to where the others were.  
  
He walked in and plopped down next to Aerith, who was leaning against the far wall. She looked at him, a bit concerned.  
  
"Cloud," she said. "You should sleep. You need your rest if you're going to rescue Sora in a couple of hours."  
  
He shook his head. "I can't knowing Sora's in danger. It just wouldn't feel right..."  
  
Aerith's brow knotted in frustration. "But when we do rescue Sora, it won't be very good if you fall asleep while searching, now will it?"  
  
Cloud sighed in defeat and rested his chin on his chest, shutting his eyes and quickly falling asleep.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Aerith sighed as Cloud finally rested his head on his chest and fell asleep. If he wasn't careful he was going to wear himself out before they even reached the place where Sora was. She knew that Cloud really did love the boy and she thought it was adorable; they were so cute together! But Sora might push him away after all that he'd been through. Cloud had told her of the awful things Riku had done to the boy back at his home.  
  
'Maybe I'm just ignorant to the truth,' she thought, 'but I just can't understand why he would do such a thing... To someone so young.....'  
  
She remembered how angry Cloud had gotten as he told her about Sora's troubled past; it was as if he couldn't stand the thought of Riku and hated him for what he'd done. Aerith knew that she was angry that Riku had done those things, but hate is a very strong word, and shouldn't be used lightly.  
  
'Cloud's probably going to kill Riku when we find him...'  
  
Sighing, she too leaned against the wall and tried to get some sleep.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
~fin of ch.9~  
  
A/N : man, I cannot believe how short these chapters are! it's nuts!! o__o *sighs* oh well... this one's a bit longer then usual! anywho, don't you find that Riku, Cloud and Sora are all a bit OOC? cuz I do. oh well, I wuv the story to death anyway!!!!! R+R please!!! it would be much appreciated. One other thing! If I was reading this I'd be like, "Where the HELL is all of the juicy yaoi bits??!" If you're like that, then just hold on. I think there's a bit of that stuff in ch. 11! 


	10. ch10 arrival at the enemy's place

disclaimer : Kingdom Hearts no mine. Or will it ever be... ;__;  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
'Cloud... Help me, please............' a weak voice mumbled. Cloud searched frantically for the owner of the meek voice, but he was no where in sight.  
  
"Sora?" Cloud called out to the darkness. "Where are you?!"  
  
'He's not coming for you, you know,' another voice spoke. The blonde recognized it as Riku's and resisted the erge to spit in anger.  
  
His anger faded as he heard a whimper. 'That's not true.... He is... coming for me...... They all are... You'll see...' Another whimper was heard as Cloud heard what sounded like a hand slapping someone's face. 'No,' Riku's voice came, harsher. 'They're NOT coming for you. I've seen them in Maleficent's crystal ball; they're just lounging around Traverse Town, waiting for the universe to be destroyed.'  
  
'No... they'd never forget about me.... or the universe...'  
  
The swordsman heard a snarl and then a hoarse scream. His eyes widened. What was that platinum-haired bastard doing to him? If only he could see what was happening and if only he could get his hands around Riku's throat...  
  
Riku's voice drew Cloud out of his thoughts. 'Never say that! I'm the only one who will ever care about you,' his said, voice harsh and cruel. 'Never forget that.'  
  
Another scream came from the darkness and everything in the swordsman's' view went white.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Cloud's eyes shot open and his head snapped up. He was still leaning against the far wall of the Gummi Ship, Aerith sitting to his left, looking worriedly over at him.  
  
"Cloud, are you alright?" she asked. "You look like you've had a nightmare."  
  
Cloud sighed and closed his eyes. "That's because I did," he said solemnly. "I was surrounded by darkness, and all the while I heard Sora and that bastard Riku having a very menacing conversation."  
  
"Don't worry, Cloud," Aerith said, trying to comfort the blonde. "We'll rescue Sora and take care of Riku. He will pay for he's done." She stood up and smiled at him. "I know you'll make sure of that." With that, she walked off to go look for Yuffie.  
  
'Aerith's right,' Cloud thought to himself. 'I shouldn't worry. But... I just can't help thinking that there's more to that dream than she or I thinks...'  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Maleficent stood waiting for the impatient youth to arrive in the chamber. He needed her help on dealing with a particular blonde swordsman. She was only too happy to oblige.  
  
Riku burst open the large stone doors and strode up to the witch. "I need your help with something," he stated calmly.  
  
"I already know what it is you are going to ask," she said, smirking.  
  
Riku raised his eyebrows. "Then how, may I ask, will I deal with the swordsman?"  
  
Maleficent chuckled. "Kill him." The youth rolled his eyes. He already knew he had to do that! The witch seemed to read his thoughts. "Yes, but do you know the way in which you will end his life?"  
  
Riku thought for a moment. If he was to kill Cloud, he needed a foolproof plan to do it. All of a sudden an idea formed in his mind. "I will duel him," he said. "And the second he lets his guard down, his head shall be a trophy upon my wall." He grinned maliciously as he thought of what Sora would do if he saw his savior's head nailed to a wall.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Yuffie was suddenly woke by a hand gently shaking her by the shoulder. She had fallen asleep when she got tired of bugging Leon, who was in the same position as he was before she fell asleep. The ninja looked up to see Aerith looking down on her, smiling.  
  
"What are you so happy about?" Yuffie questioned. Aerith only continued to smile.  
  
"We're almost there, Yuffie," she said, twisting a stray strand of hair on her finger. "I thought that maybe you'd like to be woken up, since you don't like to be left out of the action."  
  
Yuffie grinned. "Anything that involves killing or beating something up, I love it."  
  
Aerith giggled and shook her head. "You'll never change, oh little ninja."  
  
The short haired brunette stood up and put her hands on her hips, frowning. "And what's that supposed to-"  
  
She was cut off when the ship gave a violent jolt to one side, causing both women to fall ungracefully to the floor with loud thumps. Leon looked up and looked to the control room. Chip and Dale were trying as hard as they could to avoid the large chunks of space rock that came between them and their destination. Unfortunately, they couldn't get out of the way fast enough and got hit by a rather big piece. It hit on the left side, causing a huge indent. Cloud had run, clumsily, to the front of the ship, crashing into Donald and Goofy, who had slept the entire trip and were only now waking up.  
  
"What happened?!?!" Cloud exclaimed.  
  
"It seems we hit a large chunk of space rock," Chip explained in his high voice. "And I think we have to make a crash landing in Hollow Bastion."  
  
Leon walked up behind Cloud. "We have to go there anyway," he said. "We might as well."  
  
Cloud nodded. "Everybody better hold onto something then."  
  
The ship gave another violent shudder and headed abnormally fast down to the world ahead of them. It went faster and faster the closer it got. Everyone on the Gummi Ship braced themselves for the impact.  
  
The ship landed with a loud scrapping sound as it slid on the ground of the new world, slowing down bit by bit. It eventually stopped and everyone inside let go of whatever (or whoever in Yuffie's case, because she had grabbed onto Leon) and relaxed.  
  
"I think we landed," Goofy said, abet quietly.  
  
"Alright," Cloud said, taking his rightful leadership role. "Donald, Goofy, you stay here and help Chip and Dale fix the ship. Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, we're going to look for Sora." Everyone nodded. Cloud turned to the duck, dog, and two chipmunks. "You guys, we need the ship fixed by the time we get back. Cuz we'll need to get out of here as fast as possible. We're going to have an extra person."  
  
The four saluted him as he, Leon, Yuffie and Aerith walked off the ship. They were so... cartoony.  
  
The four humans stepped down off the small walking platform and on what appeared to be snow covered ground. Ahead of them was what looked to be a lake with a few rocks sticking out of the surface. Beyond that was a circle of large, tall rocks which surrounded a huge sphere of white light.  
  
"We might as well go forward," Aerith said.  
  
Yuffie nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! I'll lead the way!!" She ran forward towards the lake and just as she was about to step in the water, she banged into something and went stumbling backwards. She then fell of her backside. Cloud, Aerith and Leon walked up behind her. Leon stepped forward to where Yuffie hit something.  
  
He put his hands forward and they hit something hard. His hands moved around a little bit until he confirmed it. "A wall," he said. "An invisible wall. I guess they don't expect company much."  
  
"I guess not," Yuffie said. She walked up to the "wall" a few feet left of Leon and tried to lean on it. She simply fell through. "Owwwww!!!!" she stated. "What gives?!!?"  
  
Aerith walked up to Yuffie and helped her up She put her hands out to where Yuffie had fallen. She felt nothing.  
  
"I think there's a doorway here," she said softly. She walked forward slowly, expecting to hit something, but didn't. She walked through without hitting a thing. "There must be a hidden path." She put her hand on a "wall" to the right of her. "Just put your hand on the right and follow what you feel beneath your hand. I think we'll be able to make it across that way."  
  
The group of four proceeded to do so. The path went in a zigzag from rock to rock until finally, they got to the sphere of light.  
  
"Finally," Cloud said, walking up to it. He suddenly disappeared.  
  
"Cloud!" Aerith called out. She looked back at Yuffie and Leon, whose mouths were wide open. "Do you think we should follow him..?"  
  
The two nodded and walked forward, standing in line with Aerith. The three of them walked forward together.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
"Damn it!!" Riku exclaimed as he watched the four humans through Maleficient's crystal ball. One of them, the stubborn Cloud, had stepped forwards into the sphere of light and got transported further into the Heartless' base. The three others soon followed.  
  
The platinum haired youth had sent that meteor, or as they had called it, "large space rock", to destroy their ship. But, as he could see, it didn't work. He would have to handle this himself.  
  
Now in a rage, Riku stomped out of the main chamber.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Cloud opened his eyes to feel an excruciating pain in his head. He was flat of his back on the floor of a tall, dark hallway of sorts. He must have hit his head on the floor when he landed. He sat up and looked behind him; a sphere of light, like the one he had just walked into, floated there, about two feet off the ground. He stood up and found that his legs were a bit wobbly at first.  
  
A moment later, he heard a cry from behind him. Cloud turned around just in time to see Yuffie flying at him, coming from the sphere. His eyes widened before she knocked him over and lied on top of him. He then felt an extra weight on top of Yuffie and then another weight on top of that.  
  
"Leon!!" Yuffie cried. "Get OFFA me, would ya?!?"  
  
"I would," he replied. "If Aerith was not on top of me."  
  
"Oh, sorry!" Aerith broke in. She got off of the stoic brunette, who then got off of Yuffie.  
  
The ninja proceeded to get up off the "floor" and dust herself off. Yuffie, who was oblivious to the fact that she had landed on Cloud, idly looked around. "Where the hell's Cloud?? He should be here by now!!"  
  
Cloud grunted as he picked himself off of the floor. Yuffie turned around and squeaked.  
  
"Cloud!!" she exclaimed. "I am sooo sorry! If I'da known that I'd landed on you, I would have got up quicker! ...or something."  
  
The corner of the swordsman's' mouth twitched up in what looked to be a grin. "I'm sure you would have." His tone turned more serious as he looked down the dark hallway. "Now, let's move forward."  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
~fin of ch.10~  
  
A/N : what did you think? It took me a while to write this chappy up cuz I didn't have ANY clue as what to write in for the adventurous-type stuff. And I'm sorry if at the end little thing you found that it was a bit on the comical side; I was in a good mood when I wrote it. I had just got back from a hockey game and the whole time I was there, I was kickin' the crap out of the mascot that was running around! I know it sounds immature, (I could have gotten kicked out for it too!) but my boyfriend had bought me this chocolate-covered, sugar-filled ice cream sunday (which I ate before the game) and I had WAY too much energy so I took it out on the mascot! My boyfriend just laughed at me cuz he thinks I'm adorable when I'm hyper. Oh! If you say that I'm just immature for doing that - fuck off.... Just kidding! I wuv you all! And I'll wuv even more if you review! *hint hint* Come on, I'm a 19 year old angst yaoi addict who needs reviews!! *sob* *sniffle* 


	11. ch11 scarring

disclaimer : if I owned KH, I wouldn't be writing this... --__--  
  
Darkness Within by rin_lockheart  
Cloud, followed by Yuffie, Leon and Aerith, headed into the darkness of the hallway a little uneasily. It was dark and extremely difficult to see, which made them all a bit nervous. Their footsteps echoed loudly throughout the large domain, which just added to the nausea  
  
Yuffie unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself. 'This sucks,' she thought. 'The only way it'd be worse is if the hallway was smaller.' She glanced at the wall to her right and noticed that every so often, there'd be a column sticking out of the wall. Each column had intricate designs on it that made Yuffie think of her home. She mentally kicked herself. 'Can't think of home now!' she scolded herself. 'I'll just get all wimpy and run away when the guys really need me!'  
  
The hallway seemed to go on forever. All anyone could see ahead of them was hallway.  
  
! ~! ~! ~! ~! ~!  
  
Sora was sprawled out on the bed, as he had been when Riku left him. He didn't even bother to get up and look for his cloths; Riku would just be taking them off later anyway if he put them on, so he might as well leave them be.  
  
The brunette sat up anyway and looked himself over. He had at least one bruise on each part of his body and his lower region still hurt from Riku's earlier ministrations. How could he have allowed himself to become so weak? That, he didn't know the answer to. Sora didn't think he wanted to either.  
  
Sora resisted the erge to cry pitifully; he could hardly believe he had any tears left to shed. If only Cloud was there, he'd make him feel better...  
  
'Oh, great,' Sora thought bitterly. 'Now I'm thinking about HIM..! This is all I need...'  
  
Although what was left of Sora's pride wouldn't let him admit to a physical need of the blonde swordsman, in his heart he knew that he was attracted to him. Almost... in love, you could say.  
  
A great surge of fear shot through him as Sora felt an icy presence in his mind. He had felt it back in Leon's hideout in Traverse Town as well, when Riku had spoken to him.  
  
*Sora...* came Riku's voice, sounding more than a little ticked off. *You were thinking about him, weren't you..?*  
  
"Y-yes.." came Sora's stuttered reply.  
  
The small boy heard a low growl in his mind. *We'll just have to fix that, now won't we?*  
  
The icy presence left his mind, but the fear gripped Sora as tight as it could making salty tears run down his face.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
After what seemed like an eternity, Cloud, Yuffie, Leon and Aerith found a door at the hallways' end. It was as tall as the hallway itself, spreading almost as wide.  
  
Cloud walked up to it and pushed. He was rewarded with a groan from the doors' bolts as they swung open.  
  
The room behind the door was large and circular. It had a pillar in the center that was also carved to perfection. Cloud looked around and noticed a group of about seven young women standing in a group chattering about something. The blonde walked up behind them.  
  
"Did you see the boy Riku dragged in here the other day?" one of them asked. She had long black hair and wore a short, blue top and extremely baggy matching pants. A golden tiara rested atop her head.  
  
"You mean the one with the chop of brown hair on his head?" another asked. She had short blonde hair kept up by a black band. Her long blue dress swayed at her feet when she moved.  
  
"That's the one!" said yet another young woman. This one had brown hair pulled back out of her face with a bun. Her long golden dress brushed the floor. "He looked a bit too skinny, though. Do you think he was eating properly?"  
  
Cloud noticed that Yuffie, Leon and Aerith came up behind him, them too listening.  
  
"I thought he was kind of cute!" piped up a younger one. She looked to be about eleven or twelve with shoulder length blonde hair and knee length blue dress with a white apron over it.  
  
"I didn't see him!" another younger one said. She had short auburn hair and wore a white tank top that looked like it had a black one underneath of it. She had a short purple skirt with a small slit up the side. She had a band of deep purple on her left bicep and a gold one on each of her wrists. A black choker gripped tightly to her neck and a pair of white, blue and purple clogs adorned her feet.  
  
Cloud cleared his throat loudly and all seven women turned around and looked at him the others in his group. There were two that hadn't spoken; one had short black hair and a blue and yellow dress. The other one had longish blonde hair and a long violet dress.  
  
"Who are all of you?" asked the one in the violet dress.  
  
"Cloud," the swordsman said.  
  
"Yuffie!" the ninja said, raising her hand in the air.  
  
"I'm Aerith," the flower girl said, bowing. "Nice to make your acquaintance."  
  
Leon stood there silently, gazing around the room broadly. Yuffie elbowed him in the ribs. "Leon!" she exclaimed. "Don't be rude!"  
  
"Whatever," he said.  
  
Cloud sighed. "His name's Leon. He's always like this."  
  
"Yup," Yuffie added. "He's always an ass!"  
  
Aerith nodded.  
  
"Anyway," Cloud said, interrupting the girls' fun. "Your names are..?"  
  
The woman in the long violet dress curtsied. "I am Princess Aurora," she said. "It is nice to meet you."  
  
"I'm Jasmine," said the woman in the sort blue top. "Princess Jasmine to you. I come from Agrabah."  
  
The girl in the knee-length blue dress stepped forward. "My name is Alice!" she said, smiling. She then shook Cloud, Aerith, Yuffie, and Leon's hand, in that order, right after each other. "I'm from England! Lovely, isn't it?" She stopped smiling suddenly. "I was kidnapped in Wonderland and now I'm here."  
  
"I am Snow White," said the one in the blue and yellow dress. "I am a princess too!" She sighed sadly. "I was taken away from my home and brought here."  
  
The only brunette in the group smiled at Cloud. "Bell is my name. I was taken away from my home, as well." She continued to smile at the blonde man.  
  
"What?" he asked her indignantly.  
  
Bell shook her head. "Oh, it's nothing." She gazed at him thoughtfully. "It's just that I have a very good feeling about you."  
  
He nodded. He hadn't the faintest idea as to why the woman thought that...  
  
The short haired blonde in the long blue dress took his hand and shook it. "I'm Cinderella," she said, smiling. "I was to be married to a prince, but I'm here instead!" She giggled sadly. "I'm in a very bad spot."  
  
The auburn haired one came up and shook his hand next. "I'm from a far away island. I've been here since it got..." She swallowed nervously. "...destroyed." She let go of his hand and looked him in the eye. "I've been trying to get out of here so I could look for my friends but..." She swallowed again. "..it seems there is no way out. Before you got here, we couldn't even budge that door. We've all been way to nervous to leave through there." She pointed to an archway behind her. "We get food twice a day, but the weird thing is that it just appears in that archway. We've all been way too scared to go through it."  
  
The other women nodded in unison.  
  
"Cloud," Leon said suddenly. "Isn't that the way we have to go?"  
  
The blonde looked at him and nodded. "He's right. That's where we're going." He took a step towards it. "And we really need to be going about now. Let's go guys."  
  
Leon followed him without a word of goodbye to the princesses.  
  
Aerith and Yuffie waved at the women. "Like he said, we gotta go!" the ninja said as she took off after the two men. "Bye!"  
  
"Goodbye," Aerith said. She turned to leave but stopped. She turned to the auburn haired girl. "We didn't get your name."  
  
"Kairi," she said. "It's Kairi."*  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Sora screamed out in pain. Riku thrusted onto him violently and forcibly, not at all gently.  
  
He lay on his front, as before, Riku forcing himself in and out of the younger boy. Sora tried to smother himself in the pillow. He just couldn't take it anymore! The pain was going to drive him insane before Riku was ever finished with him.  
  
But Riku wouldn't let him die in peace.  
  
The platinum haired youth flipped the brunette over on his back and kissed him savagely. Sora whimpered in protest, but Riku only left his lips and traveled down to his throat and neck. There, he bit down, teeth digging into the flesh as sure as any knife would have. Sora cried out as Riku stuck his tongue into the wound, licking up the blood. The younger boy tried to push him off but it was in vain.  
  
"S-stop..!" the brunette cried.  
  
Riku licked it once more, which caused Sora to cry out again. "But you taste so good," the platinum haired youth whispered seductively.  
  
"J-just leave m-me alone..!" Sora was fighting back the erge to cry.  
  
Riku got off of him and instead decided to lie beside him. He then turned the boy so his back was to the older boys' chest. The platinum haired youth nuzzled the other boy's face tenderly, which completely betrayed the actions that accured mere minutes before. "If you insist," he whispered. "But I do wish you would be more submissive. You wouldn't be hurt half as much..." He stroked Sora's side softly.  
  
The brunette started to cry pitifully. He cursed himself for his weakness and frailty. A choked sob that Sora didn't even know he was holding in, emerged from inside his throat. He covered his mouth with one hand, trying to prevent any more from coming up.  
  
But, alas, his attempt was in vain as his whole body shook with sobs. He cried into his hands and Riku hugged him from behind.  
  
"Just give in," the youth whispered into Sora's ear. "You are going to be here for a long time."  
  
The brunette just continued crying into his hands.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Cloud walked into the large room with a look of distaste; the walls were made of some kind of black stone, as were the floors, and a large throne sat in the center. That was about all that was in the room. Yuffie, Aerith, and Leon came up behind him.  
  
"What a dump!" Yuffie exclaimed.  
  
Leon nodded. "Quite."  
  
"I guess we should keep going," Aerith said. "Right, Cloud?"  
  
The blonde nodded. He had been looking around the room for any sighs of another door and had found only one; in the far left corner, across the room. Everyone looked to him for orders so he indicated the door. Cloud started for it and the other followed.  
  
They were about half way across when a mocking voice drifted to their ears. "You really think you can save him, don't you, young warriors?"  
  
The four looked to where the sound came from and saw a tall, thin woman. She had what looked to be a pair of horns on her head and a set of upturned collars. Her dark cloak mostly covered a long, dark pink skirt. One of her thin hands clutched a staff with a green orb set into the top of it. Her yellow eyes glowed with maliciousness.  
  
"I am Maleficent," she said. "I rule the Heartless. You wish to oppose us, do you not?" Her mouth formed a wicked sneer. "Although, I do not see how you could do that, since we have the Keyblade master in our grasp."  
  
Cloud took a step towards her, hate clear in his eyes. "Where is he?!" the blonde snarled. "Where have you put Sora?!"  
  
The witches' sneer grew larger. "It seems I have touched on a sensitive issue. So sorry."  
  
Cloud lunged at her, sword raised above his head, about to cut her in half. Maleficent laughed, a low cackle, as she evaded the blonde's attack. She seemingly glided across the room and stopped about fifty feet from the small group. Everyone in the said group drew their weapons and ran at the witch. Yuffie threw her ninja stars, Aerith swung her staff, and Leon slashed with his gunblade**, as Cloud did with his sword. Maleficent dodged them all.  
  
After what seemed like hours, a hit was made; Cloud had managed to make a deep gash in her face. The witch froze, staring down at the cut as well as she could, horrified. A navyblue-ish substance bled from the wound, a large contrast to her deathly pale skin. Cloud and the other's froze as well.  
  
"M-my face..." Maleficent stuttered. "You c-cut my... beautiful face!!" Her lips turned down in a hateful scowl as her eyes narrowed. She glared at the blonde swordsman. "You will pay," she threatened. "You will all pay!!!"  
  
A thick swirl of black cloud surrounded the witch from head to toe in an instant. The cloud grew and grew until it was at least twenty feet high and thirty feet long. As fast as the cloud had appeared, it disappeared, revealing a large, black dragon. It had hateful glowing yellow eyes and blood red spines proceeding from its back. A long gash was indented beneath it's left eye, the only evidence that it was actually the same twisted soul.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
~fin of ch.11~  
  
*= dun dun du~~~~uuun!!!! THE BITCH IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!! **= a gunblade (for those of you who haven't played FFVIII yet (shame on you if you haven't!!)) is a sword with a gun melded in. Sorta....  
  
A/N : what do you think? It took me awhile to write this cuz I lost ALL inspiration. ;___; But I just told meself that, "I started this ficcy!!! So I'm gonna finish it!!!!!!!". Then I gave myself a sharp boot in the ass for yelling at myself like that. ( * . * oka~~~~aaay...) Anyway, review please! I've noticed the reviews are getting slack, so to everyone who reads this, PLEE~~~~~~~EEEAAASE REVIEW!!!!!! AND!!! I'd just like to apologies for being so slow in writing this. I've been way to lazy and I need to get off my ass and do something for a change. ^ ~ ^ 


	12. ch12 cutting point

disclaimer: Nope. Never. I've been trying to get Sora to get the guys phone number but......  
  
A/N: I am SO sorry about the late update! It has been so LONG since I've even LOOKED at this fic! Damn that Naruto, getting me all hooked into writing fiction for that section!! *le sigh* I swear, it has awesome persuasion powers.......  
  
But I'm here updating this now!!! XD And there will be 1 more chapter after this one, so I hope you can hold out that long!! ^____^;  
  
Darkness Within by Uzumaki Inari  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Hold me Whatever lies beyond this morning Is a little later on Regardless of warnings the future doesn't scare me at all Nothing's like before - -- - Utada Hikaru - Simple and Clean  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Long, sharp claws came down swiftly at Cloud, and he barely had time to move. He dodged backwards and fell over.  
  
'Man, she's fast...' he thought. 'I almost didn't avoid that.'  
  
The black dragon lunged again. Cloud shot up off the ground and dodged again. He picked up his sword in two hands and swung it at the dragon long neck. Her whole head and neck swerved out of the way and the bandage covered blade ripped through the air harmlessly beside the beast.  
  
Metal hitting stone made a horrible 'clinking' sound. Cloud realised this as his blade made harsh contact with the floor. It sent a searing vibration through his arm.  
  
The blonde lifted the sword again and made another swing at the dragons' head. Again, it was avoided, but Cloud kept going with the swing. He swung the sword back around and rammed it through a black scaled claw.  
  
The beast howled in pain. It flailed its tail and head like it had gone mad. She lifted the bleeding claw and tried to pry the weapon out.  
  
Cloud's grip on his sword had been broken when the claw was lifted. Fierce teeth literally plucked the sword out and hurled it across the room. Grinding his teeth, the swordsman got in a fighting position. Eyes narrowed, he prepared for the worst. With a growl, the she-dragon reared her head and prepared to strike.  
  
A shuriken was suddenly flying through the air. It embedded itself directly into the dragons' right eye. The reared strike got fouled up and the dragons' teeth found themselves deep into stone. A shriek of pain echoed throughout the hall. Blackish-blue blood dripped down the large scaly face and onto the floor. The small blade had done its job well.  
  
Looking over, Cloud saw Yuffie desperately trying to find another shuriken to throw.  
  
Aerith rushed over to the dumbfounded Cloud. "Are you alright?!" she nearly shrieked.  
  
A nod. "I'm fine... But I need to get my sword back."  
  
"Already done."  
  
Blue eyes shifted from the pink clad woman to the shaggy brunette walking towards him. Gunblade in hand. Sword in the other.  
  
"You should go on ahead and find Sora," Leon stated. "I think us three can handle the dragon from this point." The brunette looked over to the writhing beast not a hundred feet away. "It's blind in one eye, and can only use one claw. How hard could it be?"  
  
"I think you're right." Cloud took his sword from Leon's hand and heaved it over his shoulder. "I'll go on ahead and be back as soon as I can."  
  
He started running to the large hallway on the other side of the room. As he ran past Yuffie, he could hear her cry of,  
  
"Hey, where the hell do you think YOU'RE going?!"  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Riku smirked as he watched the remaining of the three attack the defenceless Maleficent from his balcony in the corner.  
  
"Stupid woman...." he muttered. "She should have known that she could never defeat them....." Still smirking, he went to take care of the other problems he had, like that bloody blonde swordsman.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
The hallway didn't last long. Cloud ran down it until he came to an end at a large steel door.  
  
"Might as well start here," he said. Putting both hands on the door, he pushed one of the doors open and walked inside. And gasped.  
  
Inside was a swirling mass of nothing. Or so it seemed. Tentively, Cloud took a step into the strange room. Solid. He took another step, and then another, till he was in about ten feet. Then he noticed something odd and disturbing.  
  
About fifteen more feet in, there was a large bed. Black sheets were scattered everywhere and what looked to be cloths were lying haphazardly all over the place. In the center of the bed, lay a large lump. Squinting his eyes, Cloud saw that the lump was breathing. Cautiously, he walked over and his eyes widened.  
  
"Sora!!" he called out. The brunette froze. Running the rest of the way, Cloud hugged the boy to himself.  
  
Sora just sat still and let himself be hugged.  
  
Cloud on the other hand was so thoroughly relieved that he found himself doing a little victory dance inside his head. He buried his face into the boy's warm neck and ran his fingers through his dark hair. Cloud hadn't realised just how much he had missed him.  
  
"C-Cloud...?" Sora mumbled. Cloud nodded against the smaller male's neck. Sora slowly wrapped his arms around the small of the blondes back. "Can we.... leave here now...?" Again Cloud nodded.  
  
Finally letting go of the dark haired boy, the swordsman stood up and offered Sora a hand, which the boy took. He moved his legs to the side of the bed and the sheets fell from his mid-section. Cloud instantly felt himself blush; why did Sora have no cloths on? The answer came to him almost instantly and he felt guilty. Of course he knew why Sora was naked! Riku had probably molested him whenever he had the chance.  
  
Sora pulled himself up with Cloud's help and immediately fell back down, crying out in pain. He let go of Cloud's hand and clutched at his lower half. Cloud, not wanting to be a pervert but still wanting to know what was wrong, let his eyes skim down to see why the boy was in pain.  
  
And his eyes widened.  
  
Blood was caked onto Sora's inner thighs and he had various cuts on both of his legs. Cloud found himself unable to pull his eyes away from the sight.  
  
After a moment, Cloud pulled his blue-green eyes away and removed a black sheet from the large bed. He covered Sora in it and hauled the brunette up into his arms, trying his best to ignore the loud painful protests that were wretched from the boy's throat. Making sure that he wouldn't slip out of his arms, Cloud made his way out of the room and back into the hallway.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Leon sighed as he wiped his forehead with the back of a hand. That god- forsaken dragon had taken more of his energy then he had intended. He looked over to his two teammates and saw them just as tired, if not more, then he was. Yuffie was laying on the floor eagle style, and Aerith sat beside her, panting slightly.  
  
Both covered in minor cuts and bruises, but nothing that a good hi-potion wouldn't fix.  
  
He sighed again.  
  
They were pathetic. Cloud had practically handed them a half dead monster on a silver platter and they still had a rough go about it.  
  
So yet again, he sighed.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Still up on the balcony, fierce aqua eyes shone with a killer intent. His head was bowed down and his long silver hair hung in his face. He was glaring down at the three figures, two of them on the floor, the other standing. They were his friends.  
  
'That stupid swordsman was NOT supposed to be able to get into that room!!' Riku thought to himself. The only way one could get into that room is if they had strong powers of darkness. Riku did know that the blonde had a few run ins with the powers of darkness, but his powers could not be that strong. 'He must be a lot darker than I first thought....'  
  
Still infuriated, Riku made his way off the balcony and on his way into the large chamber.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Cloud walked as slowly as he could to get to the large main chamber. He had the biggest erge to simply run like a madman out of there, all the while, clutching to Sora like a lifeline. But everytime he would speed up, the movement of his arms would cause Sora to whimper in pain.  
  
The blonde couldn't believe as to how thin Sora had gotten. His small hands had been clinging to Cloud's cloak as if he was afraid that he'd disappear. Even through the blanket, Cloud could feel Sora's hip bones. When he glanced down at the boy's face he could see how sunk in his cheeks were, and how his collar bones stood out, quite unlike how they used to only slightly protrude. It was as if the boy hadn't seen food in the whole week and a half he had been here.  
  
It was lucky that they'd gotten here when they did; Sora probably wouldn't have lasted much longer.  
  
He had passed out in the blonde's arms.  
  
The hallway seemed to go on forever. It didn't seem to have an end to it! 'Was it this long on the way in?!' he thought.  
  
Cloud got to the end of the hallway, and walked fast paced into the large main chamber. Leon, Yuffie and Aerith looked up upon hearing the loud footsteps.  
  
"It took you long eno-" Yuffie stopped speaking. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Sora!!"  
  
The three others scurried over and checked to see how the small brunette was. Aerith stroked his face in a motherly way.  
  
"Is he going to be okay?" she asked. Cloud nodded.  
  
"I think so. But we have to get him out of here first," he said, holding Sora a bit closer. Leon nodded in agreement.  
  
They all started for the exit. 'Why does everything is this damn fortress have to be so bloody big?!' Yuffie thought to herself. She gripped herself around the arms and tried to warm herself as she walked. She had the worst case of cold shivers she'd ever had! Why did she have to get them now?  
  
"It feels like something bad's gonna happen...." the ninja muttered. Leon eyed her strangely from his position to the side of her so she stuck out her tongue at him. He rolled his eyes. 'She is such a child,' he thought.  
  
There was an unnatural silence in the dark hall, broken only by their footsteps, and it seemed to be louder than anything that any of them had ever heard before.  
  
Cloud's eye twitched. This ringing in his ears was starting to get to him.  
  
A chill crept up on them all suddenly, and a rush of cold air flew by them. Everyone stood stock-still so as to not be blown away.  
  
"Where do you think you're all going?!"  
  
Aerith was the first to look up. Her squinted eyes widened and her mouth gapped open. Standing there, perfectly still despite the raging wind coming from behind him, furious and angry looking, was Riku. She recognised him from her dream. The wind stopped suddenly and the rest of them looked up.  
  
"You!!" Cloud exclaimed. "Where the hell were you hiding out all this time?!"  
  
The silver-haired boy clicked his tongue dangerously. "I have been watching your conquest over Maleficent," he replied. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "And I have not been hiding anywhere."  
  
Cloud faced Leon suddenly. He handed Sora over to him, and Leon barely catching on in time to catch the unconscious boy. The brunette man arched one eyebrow as he wrapped his arms around the lithe boy. "Cloud, what are you doing?"  
  
"I'm going to settle this once and for all." There was an eerie tone of finality in what Cloud spoke.  
  
Silently, Cloud drew his sword.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
All he could see was darkness. All he could feel was pain and hurt. Why would Riku do this to him? Did Riku think that his friendship meant nothing?  
  
Slowly, dim blue eyes opened to see still nothing but darkness. His breath was drawn in short, uneven puffs. Why was it so cold? He shivered violently; was it always this cold?  
  
No.  
  
It hadn't been as cold in Cloud's arms. When Cloud had first picked him up, warmth spread through his form like wildfire. He was so desperate for that warmth, that much needed heat that he had clung to the blonde as if he would die without him.  
  
And he would have.  
  
Had Cloud been a cruel illusion created by Riku, or simply a dream his subconscious made up to try and please him, he would have died. All the ache he felt in his chest, and the gnawing pain in his stomach would have overtaken him and he would have stopped living. He would not have physically died. Riku would have had something to say about that, but his soul would have left him forever.  
  
It had been real though, and that had made him happy.  
  
Cloud made him happy.  
  
Realisation dawned in his lifeless blue eyes; he was in love with Cloud.  
  
The thought had filled him with so many feelings that he was confused at first, but then he realised that you weren't supposed to understand love. It was meant to be a mystery. You didn't know why you loved someone, you just knew that you did.  
  
So for the first time in a long time, Sora smiled.  
  
He was bombarded suddenly with a blinding light, and raised his arms to cover his head.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
Sora refused to open his eyes. He didn't want to know what that clinking metal sound that woke him up was. He didn't want to see who was breathing so heavily, or who grunted so much.  
  
Yet his eyes seemed to open of their own accord. They didn't like what they saw.  
  
Riku. Cloud. Locked in a vicious looking battle. Their swords were being pushed against each other and they struggled against the force of the other. Teeth were bared and eyes were locked.  
  
Sora was confused and frightened. What was going on?  
  
Suddenly the two swords came apart and sparks flew. The silver haired warrior's demonic black sword swooped around and tried to attack the blonde from above. The blonde's own large bandaged wrapped sword flew upwards to block it. Sparks flew.  
  
For the first time since he woke up, Sora realised where he was. He was in the large main chamber of the Heartless castle. He was in someone's arms. He glanced upwards and saw that it was Leon who was holding him. The brunette's attention was on the fight though. Sora turned his attention back to the fight as well.  
  
The two swordsmen were hacking back and forth across the floor at each other. The swords were swung this way and that, as if desperate for blood. Which they were. Each of the males was out to draw the living red substance out of the other.  
  
Once again Cloud and Riku locked swords. Riku face broke out into a menacing smirk and he made a kick to the blonde. His foot connected with the blonde's side. A nasty crack was heard throughout the hall. The bastard's foot had smacked right into Cloud's ribs, and by the sound of it, had broken a few. Cloud had grunted in pain and clenched his teeth. His sword faulted slightly.  
  
Riku kicked him again. Another sickening crack was heard.  
  
"Cloud!!" Aerith cried out. The others were resisting the erge to go out and help their friend. But he had specifically told them not to interfere.  
  
Slowly, Cloud fell to his knees. His sword fell from his hands and landed heavily on the floor. He clutched at his aching ribs tentively, wanting to try and sooth the nasty pain coursing through his body, but knowing that if he touched them, it would burn.  
  
Riku smirked again, knowing that the blonde was spent. He was far from done the fight though. He would still kick and claw if he had to, which he most likely would have had to.  
  
For the first time, Riku noticed that Cloud had one black wing protruding through his left shoulder blade. He had always just assumed that it was a feathered part on his cloak. It was sleek and shiny and twitched every so often. Casting his cruel aqua eyes back to the wing's owner, Riku saw that the blonde had his eyes scrunched shut in pain. He scoffed; it seemed that he wasn't as tough as he though himself to be. What a fool this Cloud was.  
  
All this time, the boy had been grinned like a Cheshire cat. The hand on his sword tightened visibly. In one fluid motion, Riku made one clean, hard cut.  
  
A scream was retched from Cloud's dry throat. He fell foreword and barely caught himself before crumpling to the floor.  
  
Cloud's wing lay on the floor, severed from his back.  
  
!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
A/N: OMG, I just cut off Cloud's one and only wing! I'm so CRUEL! *sniff* I feel all guilty....  
  
Anywhoddle, this was a long chapter. For me anyway. Anywho, despite the eon it took me to update, could all you sweet reviewers please review?? : ) If you could it would make me very happy, and would make me post the last chapter faster. I swear it will!!  
  
And it won't take as long as this one did! If it does, I'll get my newly appointed beta Jeshka Sama to kick my ass.  
  
Happy? Good.... NOW REVIEW!!! Please.... 


	13. epilogue

disclaimer: I do not own KH. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned it? I wouldn't have to!  
  
A/N: Ok, this is that last chapter! I swear it is!! The epilogue, actually, but who's really reading this authors note anyway? NO ONE, that's who!! Ah, I'll get on with the fic now..... XP  
  
Poopie-sickles...  
  
Darkness Within by Uzumaki Inari  
  
!!!!!!  
  
Even after I'm dead and buried, I still remember I still remember Even after I'm dead and buried, I still remember I still remember - -- - Billy Talent - Voices of Violence  
  
!!!!!!  
  
Pain. Pain. Pain.  
  
Oh it burned. The excruciating pain that had been sprouting from his back was nearly overpowering. He was on his hands and knees, eyes wide and dilated. He had the biggest erge to sit up and rub his ribs till they felt better, but couldn't. He couldn't move, couldn't hear, couldn't see anything, except seductive dancing dots in front of his eyes. He wanted so much to lie down and rest somewhere, quiet and peaceful.  
  
But he couldn't. He had to beat this son of a bitch to get Sora out of here.  
  
Cloud could feel the freshly drawn blood slowly make its way down his side and drip onto the floor. Vaguely, Cloud could remember hearing Aerith call out to him moments before. Vaguely.  
  
Behind him, the silver haired teen was smirking with an unbidden glee that simply radiated from his face. His cruel aqua eyes clouded with a slight amber color for a glimpse of a second before he once again moved around to another side of the wounded warrior. He dragged his dark sword on the floor behind him as he walked. The sword left a trail of blood in its wake.  
  
Only meters away, four sets of eyes watched in horror as Riku circled their friend. Sora had by now managed to stand on his own, with only a minimal amount of help from Leon. He could barely stand to watch as Cloud was beaten and mutilated. The others tried very hard not to rush in a rip Riku to shreds.  
  
Suddenly Riku's dark blade was raised off the ground and above his head. He used his other hand to steady his grip and prepared to swing back down to the ground in which Cloud kneeled.  
  
As if like lightning, a dark haired blur had raced out in time to block this blow. With wide eyes, Riku had tried to stop his blade from lodging into any flesh, but it still did.  
  
Gasps were heard throughout the room. The sword was pulled back almost too quickly, and Riku stepped backwards, astounded. Why would he do such a foolish thing? Did he want to die?! He found that he couldn't speak.  
  
Sora clenched his teeth in an attempt not to scream. How he had managed to get out in time was beyond him. All he knew was that he had to protect his precious person from harm. And that instinct alone had been enough to spark that reaction of moving from him. But he didn't enjoy the feeling of blood slowly making its way to the floor over his shoulder. Which was where the blade had struck.  
  
The wound wasn't very deep, since Riku had tried to stop it with all his strength, but still it bled like a river. It joined Cloud's blood on the floor. The brunette let out a grunt.  
  
This caused the blonde to look up. The sight of Sora in front of him, guarding him from Riku's view slightly surprised him. The slight of his little one's bloody shoulder caused him anger and shock.  
  
Riku finally found the will to speak. "What the hell are you doing?!" he demanded. "Are you trying to kill yourself!?!"  
  
"No," Sora replied, smiling sadly. "Just trying to live."  
  
The silver haired teen was confused by those words. Riku didn't like to be confused, so he got angry.  
  
"You stupid, stupid boy!!" he cried. "You're going to kill yourself one day, and what use will I have for you then?!" He rushed forward and shoved the smaller boy out off to the side. Sora fell to his side and cried out. He landed on his bad shoulder.  
  
This angered Cloud. With willpower that he didn't know he came to possess, he stood up, grasping his sword as he did. He gritted his teeth. His sword seemed a lot heavier then it usually was. Regardless of this, he hauled it up off the floor.  
  
Riku eyed him strangely. "What in all the hells are you doing?"  
  
The battered blonde didn't speak, only raised his sword and swung it around to try and hit Riku. Surprised that he could actually lift his sword, Riku didn't bother to try and dodge. His aqua eyes widened as he caught sight of the large gash across his stomach. He snarled as he looked down at it. Blood seeped from it and stained his pale skin. He clenched his teeth and raised his own sword.  
  
!!!!!!  
  
"There! All finished!!" The dog-like creature clapped his hands together and smiled at his work. He put it on right this time!  
  
The duck beside him scowled. "It took you long enough!!" he quacked. "The others could have gotten back and we still wouldn't have had the ship fixed!" He scowled some more.  
  
"Oh, don't worry so much Donald." A giant chipmunk had walked out of the ship and to where the other two were. "They're not here yet, are they?"  
  
"No, but....."  
  
"Then don't worry about it," the chipmunk squeaked. "The ship's fixed now, so all we have to do is wait."  
  
Donald scowled again. Goofy laughed at him, as did Chip.  
  
!!!!!!  
  
Somehow, Sora had managed to sit up. He used his one good arm. The other was rendered completely useless for the time being. It had a large gash in it, and being thrown halfway across the room and landing on it hadn't helped it. The blood was flowing freely from beneath his hand of his good arm.  
  
He picked himself up, managing to stand without aid. His hand had made a bloody smear on the black marble floor. He made his way over to the others, all the time keeping his eyes on the dueling pair.  
  
Both of the fighters were tattered and covered in minor cuts and bruises. Cloud was the worse looking of the two. The bandages on his sword had all but fallen off, as with his cloak. The armor on his hip had fallen off sometime during the brawl and his purple shirt had a large tear in it, directly below right his arm.  
  
Riku was a bit better, but not by much. His black ensemble had rips here and there, and there was that ever present gash across his stomach. The Heartless symbol on his chest was about the only piece that was in tact.  
  
The two warriors were throwing their swords around almost blindly, in hopes that they could hit the other. Both were exhausted and keeping their weapons up was like a great burden. But neither would give up, as they both wanted to take Sora from the other.  
  
A rather heavy blow to his side sent Cloud sprawling. He caught himself, although barely, and used his sword to keep himself up. Riku came at him, blade raised to deliver the final blow. Everyone held their breath as they watched it unfold.....  
  
But Riku never managed to touch Cloud. Everyone gasped as Riku stopped dead in his tracks. His pupils had shrunk to tiny dots in the white of his eyes. His sword fell from his hands and clattered to the floor.  
  
Cloud had lunged forward and swung his sword at the silver-haired boy's exposed middle.  
  
And he hit; dead on.  
  
The gash was deep, cutting through to hit some vital points in his lower side. Almost instantly, his eyes became lifeless and he fell to the floor. His eyes remained open and blood trickled to the floor from the corner of his mouth.  
  
A few feet away, Sora turned his head away, so as not to look at his former best friend.  
  
!!!!!!  
  
It was some time later, two years to be exact, that the same brunette boy sat upon the golden sand of his home world, arms behind him to keep himself balanced. A small grin was spread across his face; life was pretty good, when all you had to do was sit on the sand and watch the sunset.  
  
A moment later a taller blonde male walked over and plopped down beside Sora. He lay his head on the shorter's shoulder and closed his eyes.  
  
"What are you thinking about, Sora?" the blonde asked.  
  
Sora took a breath before answering. "About things...."  
  
Cloud nuzzled his head into the crook of the brunette's neck. "What kind of things?" Cloud breathed in Sora's scent; he smelled of the ocean and sunshine, if that is a scent that can be described.  
  
"Things that I'll never forget." Sora rested his head on Cloud's. "Even after I die as an old man, all crippled and wrinkly."  
  
Cloud chuckled. "Sora, you will never get old. You'll stay young forever."  
  
Sora smiled; ever since Kingdom Hearts was sealed, and all the worlds were safe, Cloud had been there. By his side. He had never stayed in Traverse Town, as Yuffie, Leon and Aerith did. He had followed his own path, which happened to be to the Destiny Islands.  
  
Irony has a funny way of biting you in the ass sometimes.  
  
Sora giggled as feather-like kisses were placed upon his neck. Cloud had become so playful in the past two years! It had seemed like only yesterday that Cloud was as stoic and coldhearted as Leon.  
  
Although, living with Yuffie has taught Leon to let himself relax once in a while.  
  
!!!!!!  
  
It was many hours later, when the sun had long since gone down over the horizon, that Sora and Cloud still lay on the sand. Cloud had long ago fallen asleep with his head in Sora's lap, the brunette gently stroking his wild hair.  
  
His thoughts still trailed onto his old best friend, but he focused more on Cloud now. The two had an ever going relationship that shocked a few folks; Kairi for one had been astonished. She eventually got over it. She had to though; with the two frequently kissing and snuggling, it was something that you had to get used to.  
  
Cloud stirred suddenly, and drew Sora's attention to him. Sora smiled and lay a peck onto his forehead.  
  
The blonde smiled in his sleep.  
  
!!!!!!  
  
DA END!  
  
!!!!!!  
  
A/N: Holy fudging shit, this took ages to finish! XP But I did it though! And I am quite proud of myself! Although I didn't get all that many reviews on the chapter before this one (or maybe I did, I should have a look-see one of these days and count em....), I'm extremely happy that I have this done and over with so that it won't bug me anymore in the back of my mind with a little voice that screams,  
  
"GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR AND WORK ON THE DAMN THING!!!".  
  
Anywhoddle, please review! I got it done, what more do you want??? Help boost my ego, and click that little button down there. The one that says "review"... Go on, you know you want to....  
  
Well, bye peeps!! I had fun with this! BYE!!!! sniff I will miss you all.... snivel, hic  
  
waves like a retard, then gets hit by a bus 


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